Born: 17 January 1922, United States
Died: 31 December 2021
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Betty Marion Ludden
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
When Betty White died at the end of 2021 just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday, generations of fans mourned the loss of the beloved comedic actress and writer. Throughout the 1950s and ‘60s, she appeared on countless television programs as a pretty, clever sidekick for the males hosts to play off of and had starred in a few short-lived sitcoms, to the point that in 1973 when the character of Sue Ann Nivens was written for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the script called for “a sickeningly sweet Betty White type,” White claimed in Here We Go Again, one of her memoirs, adding, “They couldn’t find anyone sickening enough.” Now in her 50s, White finally had a chance to show off her acting skills as “the seemingly dopey blonde with a not-very-hidden vicious and nymphomaniac streak.” Her performance won her two Emmys. Like many people, I was introduced to White through arguably her most iconic role—St. Olaf, Minnesota’s favorite daughter, Rose Nylund, on The Golden Girls, which ran from 1985 to 1992. The show was not only brilliant, and holds up well decades later (unlike so many shows of years past), it was also revolutionary for centering four senior women, portraying them as three-dimensional characters played by actresses who were actually in their 50s and 60s—though it’s worth noting that Estelle Getty, who played Bea Arthur’s mother, was actually born the year after Arthur and White, and used wigs, make-up, and clothing to appear as though she were in her 80s. As recounted in The Guardian,
They were all, as one TV critic said, “comedy black belts”, but few shows demonstrated better White’s genius at comedy: her timing, her rhythms and even just her facial expressions turned Rose from a potentially one-joke pony into a three-dimensional character, one especially beloved by children. “It tickled me whenever some very small person, tugging at mother’s sleeve, would point and say, ‘There’s Wose!’ Too young to pronounce it, they still knew the character,” White recalled.
In its first five years, the show was in the top 10 most-watched U.S. shows every single week, and all four stars were nominated for Emmys each year. Never one to rest on her laurels, White continued acting into her 90s, starring in Hot in Cleveland from 2010 to 2015. She was a self-described workaholic who would also publish several memoirs over the years.
Amy Poehler, a comedic icon in her own right, recalled White’s 2010 appearance on Saturday Night Live in her book Yes, Please: “I asked her what she was going to do after the show. ‘I’m going to fix myself a vodka on the rocks and eat a cold hotdog,’ she said. It confirmed for me that growing old was awesome.”